P.S. Take a look at the Paleo Grubs Book. With 470+ easy-to-prepare healthy foods in 17 comprehensive categories it is the only healthy foods book you will ever need.

P.S. Take a look at the Paleo Restart. Healthy foods is also your personal coach and guides you through everything so you don't need to worry about the details.You won't be left on your own when you're done. You can Restart for a new 30 days for as many times as you want. It's a totally new experience each time and you're getting a lifetime membership.

Hopefully this guide of healthy foods to lose weight would be helpful to you in understanding healthy foods that are included in it, foods that should be avoided in it, its benefits and its drawbacks.

The Biggest Misunderstanding About the Paleo Diet

If you want to eat truly healthy, lose body fat consistently, normalize your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, prevent cancer, and even boost your brain health and energy levels, you may have heard all over the news that the Paleo Diet has been found to be one of THE best methods of achieving all of these benefits compared to any other popular “fad” diets out there.

The truth is that the Paleo Diet will NEVER be considered a “fad” because it’s just simply the way that humans evolved to eat over approximately 1.9 million years. And eating in a similar fashion to our ancestors has been proven time and time again to offer amazing health benefits, including prevention of most “diseases of civilization” such as cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, and other chronic conditions that are mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle.One of the biggest misunderstandings about the Paleo Diet is that it’s a meat-eating diet, or a super low-carb diet… This is NOT true!

There is no one single Paleo Diet, as our ancestors from all over the world ate dramatically different diets depending on the climate where they lived, their landscape, accessibility to water bodies, and the latitude that they lived.

In some cases, a Paleo Diet may be 90% plant foods and 10% animal foods, and in other cases, a Paleo Diet may be 90% animal foods and 10% plant foods…

For example, our ancestors that lived near the equator had year-long access to more plant materials such as root vegetables and various fruits, veggies, and nuts.

On the other hand, our ancestors that lived at higher latitudes further away from the equator only had access to fruits and vegetables seasonally at one specific time period per year, and had larger periods of the year where they ate a higher % of meats, organ meats, fish, and other animal-based foods, or fermented foods that could be stored for winter.

However, studies of tribes or isolated groups of people still living off the land and eating a hunter-gatherer diet (such as the research conducted by Dr Weston Price) consistently shows the distinct LACK of modern western diseases of civilization such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, and alzheimers… and this distinct lack of degenerative disease occurs regardless of what % of their calories came from protein, carbs, or fat. This is one of the biggest misunderstands of Paleo eating…

Some of these tribes or groups of people eating an ancestral diet do indeed eat a very high % of their annual calories from protein and fat (such as the Masaai and Samburu tribes, or the Inuit people), whereas on the other hand, there are also examples of isolated groups of people such as the Kitavans that eat as much as 60-70% of their annual calories from carbohydrates (mostly from starchy roots) yet still display robust health and a lack of disease.

And there are also other tribes that supplement their regular meat eating with various amounts of honey, berries, and nuts at certain times of year, and once again, display almost perfect health on their ancestral diet. It’s important to note that modern-day factory farm animals are a far cry from the wild game that our ancestors ate, so if you want to be truly healthy, you must choose pasture-raised meats and eggs (or wild game) instead of factory farm raised meats and eggs.

Another characteristic of our ancestors that ate a hunter-gatherer diet (Paleo) is that they always ate the entire animal (unlike modern humans that mostly just eat the muscle meat), without wasting anything, including eating the organs, cartilage, and other collagen-rich parts. This was very important for health, as organ meats are THE most nutrient dense foods on the planet (more nutrient-dense than most veggies), and the collagen protein is important for slowing the aging process, protecting our joint health, and preventing cancer. (I have another full article on the amazing benefits of collagen coming soon!)

As you can see, the Paleo Diet isn’t necessarily a low-carb diet per se, and it’s not a meat-based diet either, although it can be weighted more heavily in favor of protein and fats in certain cultures. The most natural and healthy diet for humans is an omnivorous diet, and not a plant-based diet, or a meat-based diet per se. The Paleo Diet can be very widely varied and omnivorous for the most part, but the most important thing is that it’s unprocessed, and avoids the worst foods that agriculture brought mankind… refined inflammatory vegetable oils, refined grains (some are worse than others), and sugar!

As you can see, the benefits of adopting a Paleo way of eating can be incredible! I’ve been eating 95% Paleo for the last 5-6 years and I’ve never felt better. I have dozens of friends that have adopted a more Paleo way of eating too, and have seen all sorts of health problems disappear, including eliminating acne and other skin problems, digestion problems, improving brain clarity, and of course, losing a lot of body fat!

“Breakthrough Science Proves It.”

And You'll Do It TODAY - In As Little As 24 Hours!

Yes, By This Time Tomorrow, You CanTransform All The Ingredients Hidden Right Inside Your Own Kitchen From Fat STORING Foods to Fat BURNING Foods That Automatically “Fix” Your Broken Metabolism and Force Your Body To Burn MORE Stubborn Belly Fat.

You don’t need to follow a strict, complicated diet.

You don’t need to buy expensive Organic groceries.

And you certainly don’t need to prepare a bunch of bland, boring, and tasteless recipes.

The entire 24 hour diet makeover is laid out for you step-by-step inside this easy to implement system:

Here’s just a taste of what’s inside The TRUTH About Fat Burning Foods that will transform your kitchen and reprogram your metabolism to use fat as a fuel source FIRST, in as little as 24 hours...

Until You Discover Exactly WHAT These Fat Burning Food Are, You’ll NEVER Burn Off “Stubborn” Belly Fat…

The Fruits & Veggies Deception (hard to believe)

The problem with your fruits and veggies (important info)

My friend and trusted colleague, Nick (The nutrition "nerd"), will show you why the fruits and veggies you buy at the grocery store aren't always the great source of nutrition that you might think they are.

The problem with your fruits and veggies (important info)

By: Reta Vong

Creator and Author of The Truth About Fat Burning Foods

If we only listened to the mainstream media, we would think the

most nutritious foods are fruits and veggies.

I used to believe the same thing... until I had a talk with my

older brother Jonathan.

(You could call him "The Farmer Nerd" because he's obsessed about

the science around soils, plants and that kind of stuff.)

Here's what he told me:

"Because agriculture has selected certain genetics to maximize

sugar content and resistance to certain pests - all while

decreasing the soils' quality with abusive farming practices -

most veggies and fruits grown today now contain way less

nutrients than 50 years ago."

Shocking, I know.

I did my own research, and it's 110% accurate that fruits and

veggies we buy today contain way less nutrients than back in the

"good ol' days"...

- One study shows a reduction of 19% calcium, 22% iron, and 14%

potassium

- Another study shows a reduction of 38% vitamin B2, and important

declines in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and

vitamin C

- Another study shows a reduction of 27% calcium, 37% iron, 21%

vitamin A and 30% vitamin C

But wait, it gets worse.

These concerning numbers don't even account the fact that most of

your food has to travel thousands of miles around the world before

reaching your plate, which decreases the nutrient content further.

And don't get me started on the "fresh" apples at the grocery

store...

According to Martin Lindstrom, author of the book "Brandwashed",

the average supermarket apple is 14 months old. (That's not a typo,

by the way)

Now, the question is... do you get enough nutrients in your diet?

The facts say otherwise...

- 80 to 90% adults in the US don't get enough vitamin D (mainly

because of poor sun exposure)

- 34% of men and 27% of women don't get enough vitamin C

- Around 74% of adults don't consume enough iodine -- a problem that

has increased by more than fourfold over the past 40 years

- One study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health shows

that 68% of Americans are magnesium deficient

- 40% of all adults are deficient in vitamin B12

All these nutrient deficiencies can take a major toll on your

health, let me tell you.

These 3 reasons revealwhat you MUST STOP doingthe next time you shop for "healthy" food because it's DAMAGING your metabolism… and EXACTLY how you can "transform" your diet to quickly burn off belly fat – in 24 hours or LESS.

Just follow the 3 simple steps below and you’ll discover which foods can “shut off” your cravings and “turn on” your body’s fat-burning switch with each and every bite making it IMPOSSIBLE for you NOT to burn MORE stubborn belly fat.

Below, you’ll find all 3 steps, and you’ll also discover an easy and delicious way to “fix” your broken diet and KEEP your body in a consistent, fat burning environment 24 hours a day – all while eating MORE of your favorite foods.

“How One Dark Decision Killed Thousands OfAmericans And Made Millions More Obese”

It’s 1956.

In a dark office where the cigar smoke is so thick most people could barely see or breathe, but you can hear the noisy clicking of someone using an old typewriter.

The words of a life-saving letter slowly appear on the yellow sheet of paper:

At least that's what food marketing, the FDA, Hollywood stars following the vegan diet and maybe even your own doctor want you to believe.

As you'll soon discover in the eye-opening article below, soy foods might be one of the darkest food scams in History.

Over 81% of Americans have been convinced and deceived into believing that soybean oil and other soy products like soy milk, soy patties and tofu can help you burn more belly fat.

In reality it's the completeopposite.

New studies from independent sources now reveal that soy products age you faster, increase your belly fat and disrupt your hormones.

I know, I know, you're probably thinking WHY in the world should I trust this advice or believe any of this?

Because scientific research confirms it's 100% FACT.

You see, I used to believe that certain health foods, like soy, were good for me too!

But then I researched over 582 studies and discovered the REAL Truth About Fat Burning Foods.

My name is Nick "The Nutrition Nerd" Pineault, and I'm just a regular guy from Montreal, Quebec that wants to burn more fat, stay lean, young looking, and be healthy for life just like YOU.

Over the last 7 years, I've uncovered hundreds of dirty little tricks the big food industry, the diet industry, and even governments pull off behind your back to make a quick buck. These are the same food LIES that harm your body making you age faster, while sabotaging your body's ability to burn fat—STOPPING you from feeling great and looking your best.

But wait, it gets even worse.

MOST doctors, nutritionists and health professionals are misinformed and don't even realize they've been misled into recommending potentially dangerous FAT-STORING foods.

The good news is that after reading the short article below you’ll learn the REAL truth about commercial soy, and MANY other so-called “healthy” foods that could be making you feel WORSE, while making your waistline bigger.

You’ll also discover how easy it is to replace these “fattening” health foods with delicious and healthy REAL FAT-BURNING foods.

The 3 "hidden" dangers below show you EXACTLY howsoy can screw up your hormones, making youstore MORE belly fat with every bite...

Once you stop buying into these food lies, you'll be able to easily transform your diet from fat-storing foods to healthy fat-burning foods WITHOUT being misled or deceived by the food industry or some health professional.

It's all part of my 24 hour diet makeover that you'll learn about below specifically designed to KEEP your body in a consistent, fat burning environment 24 hours a day – without extreme dieting, weight loss pills, or some other dangerous quick fix.

Soybean oil, soy protein and other popular forms that are touted as "healthy" are all heavily processed, which presents ALL kinds of problems.

Here's why: natural plant oils inside soy plants are very fragile, so they instantly become damaged and inflammatory the second they're exposed to heat, oxygen, or even sunlight.

That's why soy products contain so many inflammatory compounds like trans-4-hydroxy-2-hexenal (HNE), a byproduct that SPEEDS up the aging process. This same compound is found in large amounts inside the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease. (4)

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse: many soy products are processed and extracted with hexane, a dangerous byproduct of gasoline refining.

Soybeans are left soaking in a toxic hexane bath for hours one end in order to squeeze every tiny bit of oil possible. After that, the hexane is completely removed by evaporation.

At least that's what is supposed to happen. In reality, studies by the EPA clearly show that hexane can still be found in soybean oil and isolated soy protein. (5)

That's because the FDA doesn't bother setting a maximum residue level in soy foods for dangerous chemicals like hexane, which means it could be very harmful for you and your family. This is just one of the MANY fat burning food lies I discovered that you'll learn about on the next page.

So Who Can You REALLY Trust To Learn The TRUTH About The Fat-Burning Foods You Buy And Eat?

The soy lies and myths you just discovered are really only the beginning.

But who CAN you trust?

The Government? I think not.

Government officials may have the best intentions in mind – but just follow the money. The ties between regulatory agencies like the FDA and food giants like Monsanto, General Mills and Kellogg is simply too strong.

What about your doctor?

This may offend a LOT of people, but MOST doctors have NEVER been educated about fat burning nutrition and have NO clue of what you should really eat to stay lean, young, and healthy.

In fact, one study showed that more than 50% of doctors have LESS nutritional knowledge than their patients. (Reference: Am J Clin Nutr September 1993 vol. 58 no. 3 319-325) 50%!

And what about the most popular health bloggers?

Most health bloggers are genuinely TRYING to help you. But in the end they'll just give you contradictory information and conspiracy theories that could do more harm than good.

Plus, who wants to follow their extreme recommendations or eat nothing but twigs and berries? Nobody.

As you can clearly see, 99% of all experts don't know the REAL truth about fat burning foods.

That’s why I became so obsessed, spending over 7 years meticulously developing an easy-to-use system that will show you EXACTLY how to RID these fat-storing foods from your kitchen starting today.

All you have to do is click the next page button below and you can quickly and easily replace these dangerous foods for mouth-watering foods that accelerate your metabolism metabolism—all while helping you conquer your cravings, making it easier to burn off stubborn belly fat.

It's backed up by more than 582 published studies. It's efficient. And it's one of the fastest ways to transform your kitchen from fat STORING foods to fat BURNING foods in LESS than 24 hours.

Just click the next page button below and you'll learn exactly how to eat "fat burning foods" WITHOUT strict, complicated diets OR having to buy outrageously expensive organic groceries.

Did you know that almost every single one of these foods contain “hidden” fat-storing ingredients that can slow down your metabolism, sap your energy, and block your fat burning potential by a whopping 82% – even the ones you think are “healthy”?

Did you know that there’s a super simple way to rid your life of these “fattening” foods and SWAP them with delicious foods that BOOST your metabolism and dramatically accelerate your fat loss?

All you have to do is to read through the short article below and you’ll discover the easiest way to transform your kitchen and FIX your slow fat-loss – and you’ll do it in LESS than 24 hours.

This isn’t another quick fix or diet scam where you’ll end up being sold some miracle weight loss pills. It doesn’t require you to buy expensive organic foods or shady supplements. In fact, this information is CRITICAL for everyone to understand – even those who shop at health food stores and farmers’ markets all the time.

It doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, or anything in-between...or what your current goals are. It doesn’t matter how much experience you have OR how good you think your diet already is. If you eat food, this information will revolutionize your nutrition plan AND help you burn more stubborn fat.

My name is Nick Pineault, but people call me “The Nutrition Nerd” because I’ve spent the last 7+ years relentlessly researching, reading articles, and analyzing studies to master my knowledge on nutrition and the unique power of fat burning foods.

What I’ve uncovered is startling and it exposes the hundreds of dirty little tricks the big food industry, the diet industry, and even Governments try to hide from you because they don’t want you to know the real truth. These dirty little food tricks age you faster, block your body’s ability to burn fat and prevent you from feeling great.

Even though all the “bad guys” hate me for being honest, I’m on a mission. And now dozens of renowned fitness experts, nutritionists and fat loss coaches from all around the world endorse my work.

Just read the short article below and you’ll uncover a few of the most shocking discoveries I made so you canSTOP being scammed into buying the wrong fat storing ingredients.

But I do have to warn you. What you’re about to read is often considered highly controversial and goes against the grain of the mainstream diet and nutrition industry.

In fact, you’ll see how these little-known truths are the exact opposite of what you’ll hear from your local dietician, your family doctor, and almost all old school nutritionists and personal trainers.

So if you’re ready to uncover the REAL truth about fat burning foods and you’d like to burn 82% more fat every single day, with just a few small tweaks in the foods you eat, then keep reading.

But if you still believe everything you hear in the media is true and you can’t accept the fact that you’ve probably been force fed dozens and dozens of food lies, then this article is definitely not for you.

However, if you choose to continue reading you’ll finally discover ALL the “healthy” foods that are making you store more belly fat – WITHOUT you even knowing it.

These 3 reasons revealwhat you MUST STOP doing the next time you shop for "healthy" food because it's DAMAGING your metabolism… and EXACTLY how you can "transform" your diet to quickly burn off belly fat – in 24 hours or LESS.

Just follow the 3 simple steps below and you’ll discover which foods can “shut off” your cravings and “turn on” your body’s fat-burning switch with each and every bite making it IMPOSSIBLE for you NOT to burn MORE stubborn belly fat.

Below, you’ll find all 3 steps, and you’ll also discover an easy and delicious way to “fix” your broken diet and KEEP your body in a consistent, fat burning environment 24 hours a day – all while eating MORE of your favorite foods.

Step #1: STOP Trusting Food Labels (They're NOT trustworthy)

Everyone believes reading labels is a good way to determine if a food is healthy or not – but that’s only partially true.

To make more money from uneducated consumers, most food manufacturers use dirty little tricks to hide dangerous and fattening ingredients in common foods that you eat everyday. And worst of all, these fake ingredients are specifically designed to make you ADDICTED to their stuff.

One of many examples is “trans fats”. If you don’t know by now, this is one of the most dangerous foods in existence.

Eating just a tiny amount of this nasty ingredient can increase your risk of heart disease and promote accumulation of visceral fat – a dangerous kind of belly fat that’s almost impossible to get rid of.

Well, believe it or not, MANY of the foods that show “Zero Trans Fat” on the label actually contain a TON of it.

Thanks to the FDA, manufacturers are allowed to label ANY food, even so-called “healthy” ones, with less than .5g of trans fat per serving as “Trans Fat-Free”. Almost every manufacturer lowers their portion sizes on the labels to hide their claims on their products while filling them with this dangerous and fattening ingredient.

Here’s a powerful, eye-opening example. When you eat just ONE handful of “Zero Trans Fat” crackers you poison your body with a couple grams of toxic, fat-storing trans fat – WITHOUT even being aware of it.

But wait. It gets even worse. There’s one common food in particular that’s probably in your pantry, right now, and it contains loads of trans fat that don’t appear ANYWHERE on the label.

That’s right. NOT on the ingredients list, NOT in the nutrition facts, and not even on your favorite Internet food database. Nowhere.

Very few people know this, but vegetable oil (made from fat-storing corn, soybeans or canola) has to go through an extreme 5-step processing method before it ends up on your supermarket shelves.

This high pressure, high temperature process destroys all the “heart-friendly” fats originally contained in the oil and transforms it into dangerous trans fats.

According to a shocking study by the University of Florida at Gainesville, your vegetable oil can contain up to 4.6% hidden trans fat that’s not on the label. Kind of scary, I know.

But there’s a super easy way to avoid these hidden and dangerous fats. You can read all about it on the next page.

Step #2: STOP Avoiding Saturated Fats (You've been lied to)

The media, doctors and the big food industry spend millions of dollars every year trying to convince all of us that red meat is “fattening” and why you should avoid it if you want to lose belly fat. After all, it does contain a lot of dangerous saturated fats – right?

Don’t fall for it. It’s just another nutrition myth that prevents you from eating some of the BEST fat burning foods on the planet.

In fact, the RIGHT kind of saturated fat is actually good for you and can even help you lose belly fat. Recent studies actually prove that saturated fat REDUCES your risk of heart disease and supports weight loss.(Reference: Ann Intern Med. 2005 Mar 15;142(6):403-11)

But if you continue listening to all the nonsense and false information everybody tells you about this “friendly” fat-burning fat, you’ll be missing out on one of the most powerful fat-burning foods you could ever eat.

You’ll learn exactly what kind of fats you can eat to burn MORE fat using the system on the next page.

Thanks to the relentless greed of most food manufacturers, that obviously could care less about your health,some of the healthiest foods in your kitchen may be fake.

Here's proof.

In 2010, Consumer Reports – one of the most credible non-profit organizations fighting for consumer rights in the US – revealed that around 20% of ALL olive oils are fake and have been mixed with other cheap oils, while still claiming they are 100% pure.

This food hoax was uncovered once again in 2012, when the UC Davis Olive Center found out that only 27% of all olive oils passed the quality test to be labeled “extra virgin” – the best and most nutritious kind of olive oil there is.

So the olive oil you have in your kitchen RIGHT NOW might contain up to 100% vegetable oil, even though the label “says” it’s healthy. And don’t forget, vegetable oils are LOADED with dangerous, fat-storing trans-fat.

You can go ahead and TRY to find a manufacturer who actually cares and delivers a legitimate olive oil to support your weight loss goals, but it’s a crapshoot.

WARNING: These Food Truths May Be Hard To Swallow

If you’re still questioning whether or not everything I’ve revealed above is really accurate, or you’re willing to accept the blatant lies the food industry has force fed you about fat burning foods, then The Truth About Fat Burning Foods system is simply NOT for you.

However, if you’d like to learn how this unique solution works, just click the “Next Page” button below and you’ll discover a simple system that will show you EXACTLY how to rid these fat-storing foods from your kitchen –and how you can quickly and easily swap them out with mouth-watering foods that accelerate your metabolism, help you conquer your cravings and FORCE belly fat to be your “go to” energy source on a daily, ongoing basis.

It’s proven, it’s efficient, and it’s one of the fastest ways to transform your kitchen from fat STORING foods, to fat BURNING foods in LESS than 24 hours.

And since 82% of your fat loss comes from nutrition, this is also one of the surest and easiest ways to get a flat, attractive belly and six pack abs fast, WITHOUT strict, complicated diets, long boring exercise sessions, OR having to buy outrageously expensive organic groceries.

The Energy Drink Scam -- Do Energy Drinks Help You, or Can They Actually Make You Fat?

I receive a ton of questions about all of these new "energy" drinks that have hit the market over the last few years. They seem to be all the rage, and they promise you the world with outrageous claims of all of the super energy that you are going to have, and how you'll become the best athlete in the world, start lifting cars over your head, and get a perfect body.

So a couple questions arise:

Are these "energy" drinks really any good for you?Do they actually increase your energy?Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula?Will they help you lose weight?

First of all, let's look at what most of these energy drinks are usually made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup (or other added sugars), caffeine, the amino acid taurine, and some crappy artificially-derived vitamins added for show to trick you into thinking there's something healthy about these concoctions.

Let's start with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or other syrups and sugars. Well, here we've got empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are possibly even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar (although that's up for debate, but semantics in the big picture). Some energy drinks use other added sugars instead of HFCS, but it doesn't really matter, because they are all gut-fattening empty calories with no nutritional benefit.

Ok, so you say that they also have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an alternative to the sugar-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners which have their own set of health dangers.

Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some research studies that indicate artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run... in addition to having a negative hormonal effect in the body. I won't go into all of the details on that topic because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself.

Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general, are ALL bad news for your body! It's never a good idea to try to "trick" your body with artificial tastes.

What about the caffeine?

Well, first of all, caffeine doesn't in itself provide "energy". Technically, the only substance that actually provides energy is calories.

However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by means of stimulating the central nervous system.

Instead of caffeine artificially added to some carbonated "energy" drink, I'd rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas (or my new favorite - yerba mate teas), or even a good organic coffee, all of which actually provide very powerful healthy antioxidants too!

Keep in mind though, if you're a regular daily coffee drinker, and drink more than 1 cup of coffee per day, you probably have some level of addiction to caffeine and probably wouldn't receive too much benefit from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.

Tip: try to drink more tea and reduce your coffee intake to only ONE cup of coffee per day max to reduce your dependency on caffeine. Keeping total caffeine intake to around 100-150 mg/day max is helpful to prevent adrenal issues and addiction to caffeine. Most teas contain much less caffeine than coffee, and some teas (such as green, white, and oolong) contain synergistic phytochemicals that work to slow the response of the caffeine that they do contain. This means you get a milder response from the caffeine in green, oolong, or white teas compared to the harsher jittery response that some people get from too much coffee, or from coffee on an empty stomach.

Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they load into these energy drinks?

Well, big deal...you get taurine in almost any protein source. And the vast majority of those artificially added B-vitamins are simply coming right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally from a REAL food source, not artificially added to some carbonated drink. Your body just doesn't use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources from real food.

So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time THUMBS DOWN! Don't fall for the ridiculous marketing of all of these so-called "energy drinks".

Instead, here's my recipe for my own home-made energy drink:

1. Make a big iced tea mixture using green tea, white tea, and yerba mate tea. I like to add a little fruit flavor, so I'll use 1 tea bag of a raspberry or blueberry hibiscus tea, and then use 2-3 green and/or white tea bags, and 2-3 yerba mate tea bags, and make a gallon container of iced tea. I just use a small amount of stevia to lightly sweeten the batch of tea.

2. I buy a container of organic coconut water from a health food store, or buy fresh coconuts to obtain the coconut water from the inside.

3. For my healthy energy drink, I mix a half of a glass of the white/green/yerba mate iced tea mixture and fill the rest of the glass with the coconut water.

This is actually a delicious and truly healthy energy drink instead of the chemical-laden crappy energy drinks that everybody is getting suckered into buying these days.

The green, white, and yerba mate teas contain a small dose of caffeine along with a diverse mixture of powerful antioxidants and synergistic phytochemicals. Plus, the coconut water is a rich source of electrolytes and a diversity of vitamins and minerals, including as much potassium as a banana, but with only 1/3 the amount of carbs and calories as a banana. Coconut water is known to provide a good instant energy source.

So enjoy this natural healthy energy drink, knowing that you're doing your body good instead of filling it with chemicals with normal store-bought energy drinks.

Do Artificial Sweeteners (splenda, aspartame, etc) Make You Fat? Natural Alternatives Including Stevia

I wanted to talk about artificial sweeteners today because I've noticed that there's a lot of confusion and misconceptions revolving around these non-caloric sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners and the huge list of products sweetened with them are marketed to you relentlessly as "healthy foods" or "healthier" than sugar or corn syrup sweetened products. But are they really?

Just to clarify, some of the most popular artificial sweeteners on the market today are:

Splenda (sucralose)

Aspartame

Saccharine

Acesulfame Potassium (aka - acesulfame K)

These artificial sweeteners are used in abundance in almost every "diet" drink, "lite" yogurts, puddings, and ice creams, most "low-carb" products, and almost all "reduced-sugar" products. Heck, even most protein powders are loaded with artificial sweeteners too (just look on the ingredients and you'll usually see one of them).

Splenda is probably one of the worst offenders of claiming to be "healthy" as they say that it's made from real sugar. Don't be fooled! It's still an artificial substance. What they don't tell you is that Splenda is actually a chemically modified substance where chlorine is added to the chemical structure, making it more similar to a chlorinated pesticide than something we should be eating or drinking.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions that I see all of the time and it saddens me to see so many people poisoning their family with dangerous artificial sweeteners like splenda, while falsely thinking they're doing something healthy.

The truth is that artificial sweeteners are not even close to being healthy, and as you'll discover in a minute, can easily be just as bad for you, if not worse, than sugar or corn syrup. Most people think that they are doing something good for themselves by choosing the "diet" drinks or "lite" yogurts compared to the sugar-laden versions, but the problem is that you're exposing yourself to a whole new set of problems with the artificially sweetened drinks and foods.

I know you're probably frustrated by all of the contradicting messages you hear each day about which foods are good for you and which are bad. I'm sure just today you probably saw some clever ad or commercial somewhere screaming health benefits for a food product that is loaded with artificial sweeteners. Don't worry. Just stick with me and I'll get past the marketing hype for you and decipher the truth. I'll also give you some ideas for great alternatives to artificial sweeteners as well as alternatives to sugar or corn syrup sweeteners.

The fact is, artificial sweeteners vs. sugar or corn syrup is really just a battle between two evils. Which evil is worse?

I'm sure you already know the problems with sugar or high fructose corn syrup sweetened products. The excess empty calories, blood sugar spike, and resulting insulin surge this creates in your body not only promotes fat gain, but also stimulates your appetite further, making things even worse.

On the other hand, artificial sweeteners save you calories, but there's growing evidence that they can increase your appetite for sweets and other carbohydrates causing you to eat more later in the day anyway. Therefore, you don't really save any calories at all. Also, studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can stimulate high insulin levels in your body too, which again can promote fat storage.

All of the 4 artificial sweeteners listed above are nasty chemicals that the human body is simply not meant to ingest. However, most of us are ingesting a whole lot of these chemicals on a daily basis. Aside from the problems I touched on so far, other health issues that have been related to artificial sweeteners in scientific studies as well as observations are:

some have been linked to potential cancer risks

negative effects on the liver, kidneys, and other organs

stimulating cravings

gastrointestinal problems

developmental problems in children and fetuses

headaches

and too many more issues to list

Now some of the above potential health problems are definitely not proven as fact in studies. However, some of them have been shown in animal studies given high doses. Also, if you do some research, you'll find hoardes of people that attribute the use of artificial sweeteners over the years with all sorts of illnesses in themselves or in family members.

Regardless of the fact that any real health problems for actual human use are not proven yet, I don't know about you, but I'd rather protect myself and my family and steer clear of these possibly dangerous artificial chemicals.

Of course, despite all of the health issues potentially associated with artificial sweeteners, the companies that sell the products will continue to claim that they are fully safe. Don't believe them! The bottom line is that the body was not designed to deal with foreign substances like artificial sweeteners. Take my word on that one.

So what are your options for alternatives?

Well, your best alternatives for sugar or corn syrup are either raw honey, organic maple syrup, or even a little-known high antioxidant syrup called sorghum syrup (common in the southern US). Even though these alternatives still have the same amount of calories as sugar or corn syrup... honey, organic maple syrup, and sorghum syrup actually provide some nutrients and antioxidants, so it's not just empty calories. Empty calories such as white refined sugar stimulate your appetite more because your body is lacking nutrients.

Now you're probably thinking that you'd like to still save on calories but avoid the nasty artificial sweeteners. Good news... You can!

You've probably seen me reference this natural sweetener in a lot of my recipes. It's called Stevia. I've been using it for years as an alternative sweetener when you still want to save a little on calories and sugar but don't want to harm your health with artificial sweeteners.

Stevia is not artificial like the other chemical sweeteners I mentioned above. Stevia is a natural non-caloric herb that's been used for thousands of years in some parts of the world. It is an herb and when dried into a powder, has a sweetness about 200-300 times stronger than sugar.

One problem I've noticed with using Stevia is that the pure powder is a very powerful sweetener, so you can easily use too much. However, I've found some good Stevia products that use a bulking agent added so that you can measure out the stevia powder in direct comparison to measuring sugar.

I've yet to see any negative reports or health concerns regarding stevia and only positive potential health benefits. After all, it's simply an herb as opposed to an artificial chemical derived in a lab. I definitely give Stevia my seal of approval. Do yourself a favor (and your family), and if you are currently an artificial sweetener junkie, please consider switching to stevia.

More and more stevia products are available now even in many grocery stores. One of the best stevia products I've found over the years is made by a company called the truth about six pack. They have an excellent stevia product blended with another natural sweetener called erythritol. I suggest giving it a try! Just look for the "Steviva Blend". You can use it in your coffee or tea, to sweeten up plain yogurt, added to smoothies for extra sweetness, on cereals or oatmeal, in baking, or where ever else you might need a sweetener but want to reduce the sugar content.